Donald Crisp


Donald Crisp was an English film actor as well as was an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.

Early life

Donald Crisp was born George William Crisp in Bow, London, in a family home on 27 July 1882. He was the youngest of ten children born to Elizabeth and James Crisp, a labourer. He was educated locally and in 1901 was living with his parents and working as a driver of a horse-drawn vehicle.
Crisp made a number of claims about his early life that were eventually proven false decades after his death. He claimed that he was born in 1880 in Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland, and even went so far as to maintain a Scottish accent throughout his life in Hollywood. In fact, he had no connections to Scotland, but in 1996, a plaque commemorating him was unveiled by Scottish comedian Jimmy Logan in Crisp's supposed hometown of Aberfeldy. He claimed on alternative occasions that his father was a cattle farmer, a country doctor or a royal physician to King Edward VII. He also claimed that he was educated at Eton and Oxford, and that he served as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War.

Early career

While travelling on the SS Carmania to the United States in July 1906, Crisp's singing talents during a ship's concert caught the attention of opera impresario John C. Fisher, who immediately offered him a job with his company. Crisp spent his first year in New York City in the Grand Opera, and the following year as a stage director. It was while touring with the company in the United States and Cuba that Crisp first became interested in the theatre. By 1910, Crisp, now using the name Donald, was working as a stage manager for the renowned entertainer, composer, playwright and director George M. Cohan. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D.W. Griffith. When Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him.
From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, though many in bit or small parts. One notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffith's landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffith's 1919 film Broken Blossoms as "Battling Burrows", the brutal and abusive father of the film's heroine, Lucy Burrows.

Director

Crisp worked as an assistant to Griffith for several years and learned much during this time from Griffith, an early master of film story telling who was influential in advancing a number of early techniques, such as cross cutting in editing his films. This experience fostered a similar passion in Crisp to become a director in his own right. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914. Many directors would find themselves turning out a dozen or more films in a single year at this time. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator with Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks.
When asked later by an interviewer why he eventually gave up directing and returned full-time to acting, Crisp commented that directing had become extremely wearisome because he was so often called upon, if not forced, to do favours for studio chiefs by agreeing to employ their relatives in his films. His final directorial effort was the film The Runaway Bride.

Military career

Between working for Griffith and other producers, along with his many acting roles, Crisp managed to return to Britain, where he served in army intelligence during the First World War. During the Second World War, Crisp answered the call to duty at a time when his acting career was at its peak. This time, he served in United States Army Reserve, where he rose to the rank of colonel.

Return to acting

With the advent of "talkies", Crisp abandoned directing and devoted himself entirely to acting after 1930. He became a much sought after character actor. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in a wide range of roles alongside some of the era's biggest stars, including Katharine Hepburn in The Little Minister and A Woman Rebels, Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty, Bette Davis and Henry Fonda in That Certain Woman and Jezebel, Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights, Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and The Sea Hawk and Gregory Peck in The Valley of Decision.
A versatile supporting actor, Crisp could be equally good in either lovable or sinister roles. During the same period he was playing loving father figures or charming old codgers in classic films like National Velvet and Lassie Come Home, he also turned in a well-received performance as Commander Beach, the tormented presumptive grandfather in Lewis Allen's The Uninvited. Undoubtedly, however, Crisp's most memorable role was as the taciturn but loving father in How Green Was My Valley directed by John Ford. The film received ten Oscar nominations, winning five, including Best Picture, with Crisp winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1942.

Hollywood power broker

Crisp was an active and important liaison between the film industry and outside business interests. His extensive experience in business, the military and entertainment, including being a production and studio executive, lent itself well to this task. He became a highly valued adviser whose clear-headed forward thinking proved invaluable to the Bank of America, which was one of the leading sources of working capital for the film industry for many years. Crisp served on the bank's advisory board for several decades, including a stint as its chairman. In this role, he had the ear of its board of directors, and many of the films eventually financed by the bank during the 1930s and 1940s got their most important approval from Crisp.

Later years and legacy

Crisp eventually became one of the more wealthy members of the film industry. His "banker's sobriety", extensive contacts and clarity of thought allowed him to make good investments, particularly in the real estate market. He continued to appear in films throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. During more than half a century as an actor, he appeared in as many as 400 two-reel and feature-length productions, perhaps a great deal more. John Carradine, who counted over 500 films to his own credit, told his son Keith, who repeated the story during a 2018 Gilbert Gottfried podcast, that only Donald Crisp had appeared in more movies. Crisp's final screen role was as Grandpa Spencer alongside former film co-stars Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara in the 1963 film Spencer's Mountain. This film, adapted from the novel by Earl Hamner, Jr., was the basis for the 1970s television series The Waltons.
Crisp was in his eighties by the time he quit acting entirely, continuing to work long after financially necessary simply because he enjoyed it. He was married three times. In 1912, he married actress Helen Pease, and they remained together until her death the following year. In 1917, he married Marie Stark, whom he divorced in 1920; she went on to act in silent films as Marie Crisp. In 1932, he married film screenwriter Jane Murfin, whom he divorced in 1944. He died in 1974, a few months short of his 92nd birthday, due to complications from a series of strokes. In addition to being one of the premier character actors of his era, he left behind an extensive list of contributions to the film industry he worked to promote for more than fifty years. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
He was a staunch Republican who campaigned for Thomas Dewey in 1944.
On February 8, 1960, Crisp received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion pictures industry at 1628 Vine Street.

Partial filmography

As actor

  • The French Maid
  • Through the Breakers as At the Club
  • Sunshine Sue as Head of Sweatshop
  • A Plain Song as at station
  • A Child's Stratagem as policeman
  • The Golden Supper as courtier
  • Winning Back His Love as at stage door
  • The Two Paths as footman
  • Heart Beats of Long Ago as courtier
  • What Shall We Do with Our Old? as bailiff
  • The Lily of the Tenements
  • A Decree of Destiny as at the club / at the wedding
  • The White Rose of the Wilds
  • Her Awakening as accident witness
  • The Primal Call
  • Out from the Shadow at a dance
  • The Making of a Man as actor / backstage
  • The Long Road as a servant / the landlord
  • The Battle as a Union soldier
  • The Miser's Heart as a policeman
  • The Italian Barber as at ball
  • Help Wanted as in corridor
  • Fate's Turning as a valet
  • The Poor Sick Men as policeman
  • A Wreath of Orange Blossoms as servant
  • Conscience as policeman
  • In the Days of '49
  • The Diving Girl as a bather
  • Swords and Hearts as bushwacker
  • The Squaw's Love as Indian
  • The Adventures of Billy as first tramp
  • The Failure as employer
  • The Eternal Mother as in-field
  • The Musketeers of Pig Alley as rival gang member
  • The Inner Circle
  • Pirate Gold
  • Near to Earth
  • The Sheriff's Baby
  • Olaf—An Atom as the beggar
  • The Mothering Heart
  • Two Men of the Desert
  • Black and White
  • The Battle of the Sexes as Frank Andrews
  • The Great Leap; Until Death Do Us Part
  • Home, Sweet Home as the mother's son
  • The Escape as "Bull" McGee
  • The Folly of Anne
  • The Sisters
  • The Mysterious Shot as Buck
  • The Stiletto as Angelino
  • The Mountain Rat as Steve
  • Ashes of the Past
  • The Different Man as ranch farmer
  • The Miniature Portrait
  • The Soul of Honor
  • The Newer Woman
  • Their First Acquaintance
  • The Birthday Present as the burglar
  • The Weaker Strain
  • The Avenging Conscience as Minor Role
  • The Idiot
  • The Tavern of Tragedy as spy, Bob Jameson
  • Her Mother's Necklace as the burglar
  • A Lesson in Mechanics
  • Down the Hill to Creditville
  • The Great God Fear as Dick Stull
  • His Mother's Trust as Dr. Keene
  • The Warning as Mr. Edwards
  • Another Chance as The Tramp
  • A Question of Courage
  • Over the Ledge
  • An Old Fashioned Girl
  • The Birth of a Nation as Gen. U.S. Grant
  • The Love Route as Harry Marshall
  • The Commanding Officer as Col. Archer
  • May Blossom as Steve Harland
  • The Foundling
  • A Girl of Yesterday as A. H. Monroe
  • Ramona as Jim Farrar
  • Intolerance as Extra
  • Joan the Woman
  • Broken Blossoms as Battling Burrows
  • The Bonnie Brier Bush as Lachlan Campbell
  • Don Q, Son of Zorro as Don Sebastian
  • The Black Pirate as MacTavish
  • Stand and Deliver as London Club Member
  • The River Pirate as Caxton
  • The Viking as Leif Ericsson
  • Trent's Last Case as Sigsbee Manderson
  • The Pagan as Mr. Roger Slater
  • The Return of Sherlock Holmes as Colonel Moran
  • Scotland Yard as Charles Fox
  • Svengali as The Laird
  • Kick In as Police Commissioner Harvey
  • A Passport to Hell as Sgt. Snyder
  • Red Dust as Guidon, overseer
  • Broadway Bad as Darrall
  • The Crime Doctor as D.A. Mr. Anthony
  • The Key as Peadar Conlan
  • The Life of Vergie Winters as Mike Davey
  • British Agent as Marshall O'Reilly
  • What Every Woman Knows as David Wylie
  • The Little Minister as Doctor McQueen
  • ' as George, the Inn Keeper
  • Laddie as Mr. Pryor
  • Oil for the Lamps of China as J.T. McCarter
  • Mutiny on the Bounty as Burkitt
  • The White Angel as Doctor Hunt
  • Mary of Scotland as Huntly
  • The Charge of the Light Brigade as Col. Campbell
  • A Woman Rebels as Judge Byron Thisthlewaite
  • Beloved Enemy as Liam Burke
  • The Great O'Malley as Captain Cromwell
  • Parnell as Davitt
  • The Life of Emile Zola as Maitre Labori
  • Confession as Presiding Judge
  • That Certain Woman as Jack Merrick, Sr.
  • Sergeant Murphy as Col. Todd Carruthers
  • Jezebel as Dr. Livingstone
  • The Beloved Brat as John Morgan
  • The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse as Police Inspector Lewis Lane
  • Valley of the Giants as Andy Stone
  • The Sisters as Tim Hazelton
  • Comet Over Broadway as Joe Grant
  • The Dawn Patrol as Phipps
  • The Oklahoma Kid as Judge Hardwick
  • Wuthering Heights as Dr. Kenneth
  • Juarez as General Marechal Achille Bazaine
  • Sons of Liberty as Alexander MacDongall
  • Daughters Courageous as Samuel 'Sam' Sloane
  • The Old Maid as Dr. Lanshell
  • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex as Francis Bacon
  • Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet as Minister Althoff
  • Brother Orchid as Brother Superior
  • The Sea Hawk as Sir John Burleson
  • City for Conquest as Scotty MacPherson
  • Knute Rockne, All American as Father John Callahan
  • Shining Victory as Dr. Drewitt
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Sir Charles Emery
  • How Green Was My Valley as Gwilym Morgan
  • The Gay Sisters as Ralph Pedloch
  • Forever and a Day as Capt. Martin
  • Lassie Come Home as Sam Carraclouch
  • The Uninvited as Commander Beech
  • The Adventures of Mark Twain as J.B. Pond
  • National Velvet as Mr. Herbert Brown
  • Son of Lassie as Sam Carraclouch
  • The Valley of Decision as William Scott
  • Ramrod as Jim Crew
  • Hills of Home as Drumsheugh
  • Whispering Smith as Barney Rebstock
  • Challenge to Lassie as "Jock" Gray
  • Bright Leaf as Mayor James Singleton
  • Home Town Story as John MacFarland
  • Prince Valiant as King Aguar
  • The Long Gray Line as Old Martin
  • The Man from Laramie as Alec Waggoman
  • Drango as Judge Allen
  • Saddle the Wind as Dennis Deneen
  • The Last Hurrah as Cardinal Martin Burke
  • A Dog of Flanders as Jehan Daas
  • Pollyanna as Mayor Karl Warren
  • ' as James Brown
  • Spencer's Mountain as Grandpa Zubulon Spencer

    As a director

  • Her Father's Silent Partner
  • Ramona
  • Rimrock Jones
  • Believe Me, Xantippe
  • The Goat
  • Love Insurance
  • Why Smith Left Home
  • It Pays to Advertise
  • Too Much Johnson
  • The Six Best Cellars
  • Miss Hobbs
  • Held by the Enemy
  • Appearances
  • The Princess of New York
  • The Bonnie Brier Bush
  • Tell Your Children
  • The Navigator
  • Ponjola
  • Don Q, Son of Zorro
  • Young April
  • Dress Parade
  • Nobody's Widow
  • The Cop
  • The Runaway Bride